Justice for All

BY MARILYN HARRIS

Cardozo Law creates a new Center for Rights and Justice.

It’s a rare opportunity to see a lawyer prepare for what could be a landmark case. But in February Cardozo students seized the chance to do just that when they attended a mock trial in the Jacob Burns Moot Court Room. There, Professor Alexander Reinert faced a five-judge panel of professors and attorneys who hammered him with questions in advance of his upcoming oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The issue raised by the case, McGowan v. United States of America, was whether a federal prisoner may bring a damages action against the government to remedy the violation of his First Amendment rights.

Student & Faculty Blog

At Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee considering her nomination to be CIA Director, Gina Haspel talked a lot about “leadership lessons” – lessons not only reflecting the knowledge and experience she plainly has, but presumably the deeper insights and judgment one gains after trying and failing, as we all inevitably do, to do the right thing at the critical time. The great disappointment of Haspel’s testimony was in how evident it became that she seems to have learned the wrong ones.

Even before the Wednesday hearing, Haspel’s nomination was opposed by scores of retired military leaders, and an equal number of America’s ambassadors and diplomats; there are likewise many individuals in our intelligence community who cite the same reasons as Haspel’s opponents for thinking America should never go down the torture road again. Our torture program violated the law, endangered our troops, empowered terrorist recruiters, imperiled essential counterterrorism cooperation with our most stalwart allies, did lasting physical and psychological harm both to the prisoners we tortured and the men and women we demanded torture them, and compromised our most basic values as a country. As John McCain put it back it 2005: “"It's not about who they are. It's about who we are." These lessons were hard won indeed.

Business & Technology

BY JANICE WEBER

Cardozo School of Law's Legal Tech Day, a day-long series of panel discussions aimed at information governance professionals, featured "'Big Data' and its Legal Impacts," hosted by the Cardozo Data Law Initiative. It was one of two panels held that day that comprised the latest offering in the law school's continuing Tech Talks series. READ MORE

Big Data

Celebrating 40 Years

Activism: A pioneering commitment to hands-on learning and social justice

Innovation: Programs and Centers that set new standards, from the Innocence Project to the FAME Center and Indie Film Clinic

Leadership: A world-class faculty dedicated to students, scholarship and advocacy

Ambition: A community of highly ambitious and successful alumni and students

Featured Alumni

John LaBarre ’05 was recently promoted to the head of Google’s patent transactions team. As a leading provider of various technologies relating to search, artificial intelligence, networking, and computing, Google maintains a large, diverse patent portfolio overseen by Google's patent group. The patent transactions teams is involved with nearly all inbound, outbound, and cross-licensing deals for Google as well as divestitures and strategic acquisitions.

“I specifically attended Cardozo knowing I wanted to go into IP and the law school’s reputation in that area was key to my enthusiasm in attending,” said John. “And — understatement alert — Cardozo absolutely lived up to its considerable reputation as having great instructors and programs focused around IP.”

LaBarre says that he appreciated many of the practical IP courses he was exposed to as a second and third year student. “Most memorable for me was Professor Wolf’s class on patent litigation,” he says. “I honestly believe that this class better prepared me for my early career in litigation than probably any other experience.”

Prior to joining Google's transactions team in November 2014, John was a member of Google's patent litigation team for five-and-a-half years where he helped defend the company from a large number of patent cases including various matters that went to trial. Before joining Google in 2009, John worked as a patent litigator in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Featured Video

ITAP's immersion in cutting edge strategies for courtroom litigation transforms law students into trial attorneys.

Innocence Project Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Cardozo is proud to congratulate The Innocence Project on 25 years fighting on the front lines in the battle for justice.

The Innocence Project was conceived and founded in 1992 at Cardozo School of Law. Cardozo embraced a pioneering and radical idea that transformed the criminal justice system.

Generations of Cardozo students, like Rachel Pecker, have helped win the freedom of wrongfully convicted prisoners under the talented leadership of Professor Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. “It was incredibly heavy to be on phone calls listening to someone who has been in prison for a long time and hearing their pain,” said Rachel Pecker. Pecker, who graduated from Cardozo in 2013, worked on the case of Michael Morton and was with Morton when he was exonerated after serving 25 years for a crime he did not commit. “Working on his case and seeing what it took to get him out… those are the things I am most proud of and I will keep with me forever,” said Pecker.

Over 350 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing—prisoners who served an average of 13 years in prison before exoneration and release.

Cardozo clinical students work with prisoners, crime labs, prosecutors, and defense lawyers, and review case histories, including transcripts, medical reports, and appellate briefs. They litigate in trial and appellate courts across the country on complex procedural and constitutional issues that arise when getting access to evidence, testing, and proving innocence. This innovative, year-long clinic has either represented or provided critical assistance for these prisoners exonerated through DNA evidence, several of whom were on death row.

"What makes the Innocence Project effective Is that it taps into something on a very spiritual level,” says Cardozo clinical professor of law Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project. “ It is this whole struggle that our clients and their families engage in, which is to overcome injustice.

Read about this Cardozo clinic’s amazing 25 years on the frontline of justice in Time Magazine.

Lights, Camera, Transaction!

BY JULIE SCHNEYER

Cardozo’s Independent Film Clinic is a one-of-a-kind blockbuster, providing unique transactional legal training and hands-on experience that allows students to witness the entire creative business of making and distributing a film. The clinic is part of the next wave of Cardozo’s robust intellectual property offerings coming out of the FAME Center for fashion, art, media and entertainment law.

The clinic is leading the way as the only one of its kind in the country, providing unique training that is transactional—unlike typical law school clinics, which are litigation- or impact-based. READ MORE